Her voice grew quiet, fading out with the wind. The golden light in her eyes rapidly receded.
Those words would haunt him for the rest of his life. Words that severed their beautiful bond.
“Don’t bury me. Spread my ashes among the breeze. Find my father, tell Papa I loved him. Momma, Edmund, and I will wait for him.”
Restrained sobs shook his body and he collapsed, his shoulders rounding inward.
Whimpering, she lifted an icy hand, her fingers brushing the tears from his cheek. His hand covered hers, holding it there.
“I will always love you,” she whispered, her final vow a soft, breathy sigh against his skin.
Forty
Elara
Clouds puffed under her, the cold gone as Elara floated. The terrifying frost of the draugar lifted, replaced by a familiar heat. She drifted along a vast, sun-drenched ocean of pure gold.
Except she wasn’t alone.
Fluttering her lashes, Elara blinked at the misty figure of a woman standing beside her. Garlands of white foam adorned her sun-kissed curls, her eyes the color of spring moss. Beside her stood a man with a dimpled smile blooming under messy, chestnut locks.
Her mother and brother looked back at her, and Elara’s breath caught. Edmund grinned at her, beaming. And her mother radiated warmth, she was not the shell of the person she had been the last time Elara saw her.
No, she smiled, her skin bright and her soul at peace.
“I’ve missed you, sweetheart,” her mother whispered, her voice swaying like a distant lullaby. “I had to see you one last time before you left. We had to see you.”
Her gaze slid to Edmund’s and he dipped his chin. He looked older, more hardened than the boy he had been when he passed.
“Hello, Sister.”
“What?” Elara whispered.
The lines around her mother’s face softened. Her infectious smile made Elara more at ease. Edmund leaned to the side, pecking their mother’s cheek, and winked at Elara, making her laugh.
“We wanted to see you. Just one more time. But you don’t belong here, sweetheart. Someday, you will be bound for this world. But now is not that time. You do not belong here. Someone waits for you. You needed time to heal.”
Njáll.
Was this real or a dream or a vision? Elara couldn’t decipher anything through the muddled haze.
“Wait! I’m sorry. It’s my fault you’re here. If I didn’t…”
“Hush, Elara,” her mother cooed. “No one can outrun fate. One way or another, I would have wound up here. Stop blaming yourself.”
“You always liked to play the martyr,” Edmund snorted, and Elara glared at him before snorting.
“I miss you. I feel like I betrayed you.”
The amusement glittering in Edmund’s eyes faded, his mouth turning down in a frown. His arms crossed over his chest.
“Elara. You could never betray me.” Strong fingers gripped her upper arm, and she stared into the resolute gaze of her brother. “That man will protect you until his dying breath. He’ll cherish you. There is nothing more I could want for my sister.”
“Edmund, I…”
“Enough,” he cut her off. “Do not worry anymore.”
Gold glittered in the distance, looking like dust clouding the horizon along the cloud tops. A sad smile graced her mother’s lips and she shared a knowing look with Edmund.
